Cabinet and some fun

 Hello everyone,

Started on the new cabinet for Diego.

Going to try and finish it up on Monday.

Decided at the last minute to take a couple of days off and go on a mini road trip. Drove up to Michigan and the first night stayed at a little microbrewery. Had good food and the beer was very good. The next night we got at campsite at a state park and visited a winery to see a band we really like. The band is called Magic Bus and they do a “Woodstock “ show. They’re a really fun band we’ve seen a few times now and actually met a few of the band members this time around! It was pretty” far out, man”!

I want to finish the cabinet because the rest of the week is going to be preparation patrol. We’re having a party at the house for one of my wife’s best friends. She was one of the optometrists in town and she sold her business and has retired. Don’t know how many people are coming but, there will be a band ( another friend’s husband’s band), a shit ton of food and drinks, should be a blast!

So, mowing, weed whacking, and general cleaning is on the agenda.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Baby steps

 Hello everyone,

Finished painting the sidecar frame.

Greased up and assembled the leaf springs for the body of the sidecar to mount to.

Finished assembling both side and welded the rivets back on the little clips that hold them in line. When I took the first one apart I thought they were bolts and ground off the rivet heads, but I managed to save the ones on the second set, so it was a breeze to put back together.

Got a coat of paint on them and Bob’s your uncle, they look pretty good!

Well, when the paint dries I can move them off my table and clean up the shop a little and start building the cabinet for Diego. I fixed a couple of things in the van that were on the list from the last trip, all that’s left at the moment is the cabinet. Hopefully I can put that together fairly quickly, I want to keep going on the bike while I have a little head of steam going. Next up will be to disassemble the bike and do some repairs on the frame and get it sanded and painted.

Well, we’ll see how we progress, and I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI

A little bike work

 Hello everyone,

Yep, got a little bike work done this week.

Sanded and sandblasted the hack frame, finally took the other leaf spring apart and ground and sanded all the rust off of it. Sandblasted the bottom for the battery box/ oil tank mount. Then primered everything.

Then I painted the battery/oil tank mount.

I’ll get the rest painted this week and then I need to come up with some hardware to assemble the leaf springs. I’m going to put some grease in between the leaves when I reassemble them and then actually paint them black after they’re assembled.

I have to do some fixing on Diego this week too. I’m going to build another shelf back by the bed and I have to move some wiring also.

Well, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, TVI

Forgot

 Hello again, 

I just remembered that we also sold the old van( Dora) this past week. So now, only Diego remains. Nice to have a little cushion of money in these times. Probably won’t last long but at least it’s something.

We’ll for sure that’s all for now.

Talk to to you soon,

TVI

More house stuff and a little on the bike

 Hello everyone,

We moved the giant pile of mulch on Monday, did some more yard cleaning, and kind of took yesterday off .

But, yesterday I started taking the sidecar frame off the bike and taking it apart. I took all the pieces off it and this morning I sanded the frame and set it outside and sandblasted the places I couldn’t sand. 

I decided to paint the frames with rattle cans, just so I can repair scratches and paint chips easier than powder coating.( and cheaper!) At the moment I don’t have any paint but I should be able to pick some up tomorrow. I’ve asked Shop Teacher Bob to make a new bushing for the cross shaft of the sidecar brake. Somewhere in its life someone cut the end of the tube it goes in off, only a couple of inches and they lost the crossover linkage. I managed to find one a few months ( or years) back. I figure the rod is3/4” and with it missing those couple of inches on the tube the rod won’t deflect at all. So when he gets me the bushing all I’ll have to do is drive it in and drill a hole in the tube and bushing for a grease fitting. When that happens the entire frame for the side hack should be completely done! 1 step down!!

We’ll I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Pics plus the week in review

 Hello everyone,

Here’s some of the pics from our trip in Diego.

The top was the reason for the trip, the wife and her brothers, the next pic is Bryce Canyon and the last one is The Grand Canyon.  Beautiful country we live in!

We’ve spent most of the time since coming home taking care of the yard. Cutting, weed whacking, raking, mulching, you know, the usual crap. Here it’s probably twice what it is in a neighborhood home. But, that said it’s part of the reason for living here. 

Yesterday we cleaned out the garage and the shop again and, lo and behold, 

Well, I tried like three times to load the video and it wouldn’t load. 1 more time,

Well,  maybe. Anyway, it’s THE very first ride ever of this iteration of the old girl! Kind of funny! Moving it was part of the cleaning process, and I was moving her back to the shop. Still have a couple of things to do before I can launch back into working on her.

Then this morning, we went out to the barn and found this

in the trap and then captured this

soon after. The middle son is in the process of releasing them a few miles from here. Then I have to figure out how to keep them out of the barn!

Well, just goes to show you why we’re so busy here all the time.

This week is mulch and normal stuff, but I just got word I’ll be babysitting the grandson tomorrow. He’s down sick and mom and dad and grandma are working. So, it’s grandpa to the rescue!!

Well, I think that’s all for now. 

Talk to you soon, 

TVI

Home safe and sound

Hello everyone,

We’ll the title pretty much sums it up. Had a wonderful time out west. Saw some beautiful country, had a really nice time with the wife’s brothers. All in all a very nice trip.

At the moment I don’t have internet at the house, so I’ll add some pictures and commentary later in the week. Supposed to have a new provider on Wednesday. Hope so this pretty much sucks.

Been home a few days and am playing hell catching up with the lawn and house chores.

We’ll, I think that’s all for now.

Talk to you soon,

TVI